Monthly Archives: January 2018

On January 17th, Dr. Luz Claudio weighed in on whether indoor plants can help with indoor air quality in Time Magazine. “There are no definitive studies to show that having indoor plants can significantly increase the air quality in the home to improve health in a measurable way,” says Luz Claudio, a professor of environmental medicine and public health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Claudio has reviewed the research on the air-quality benefits of indoor plants. She says there’s no question that plants are capable of removing volatile chemical toxins from the air “under laboratory conditions.” But in the real world—in your home, say, or in your office space—the notion that incorporating a few plants can purify your air doesn’t have much hard science to back it up. To read the full Time article click here.

On Janaury 10th, Dr. Shanna Swan was featured in Health Day to provide insight on study that found toddlers whose mothers used acetaminophen early in pregnancy may have a heightened risk of language delays. According to Shanna Swan, the senior researcher on the study, “There really is no good alternative to acetaminophen.” Yet evidence is growing that there can be risks from taking the drug during pregnancy, especially more than occasionally, Swan said. To read the full Health Day article click here.

On January 10, 2018, Dr. Ruth Loos and researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and other institutions of the Genetic Investigation of Anthropometric Traits (GIANT) consortium found 13 genes that carry variations associated with body mass index (BMIIn a study published in the January issue of Nature Genetics, ). This was the first large-scale study to pinpoint genetic variations that may directly impact the function of the genes. To read the full press release click here.